2020 Super Gold Boys Basketball Coach of the Year Tigee Rideaux, coach of the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns. Photo made on May 15, 2020.
Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise

2020 Super Gold Boys Basketball Coach of the Year Tigee Rideaux,...

The Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns boys basketball team suffered its sixth loss of district play on January 28, and were sitting at 1-6 in district 22-4A. Head coach Tigee Rideaux was facing what looked like insurmountable odds in his first season in charge of the Longhorns.

Then the Longhorns won five consecutive district games down the stretch, snapped Silsbee’s four-year undefeated district streak, denied Hardin-Jefferson’s opportunity to capture a district title and upset the 21-4A No. 1 seed Hargrave-Huffman on the last-shot in the bi-district round.

Leading the Longorns to a 21-game turnaround from last season and clinching the program’s first playoff berth since the 2011-2012 season earned Rideaux the Beaumont Enterprise 2020 Super Gold boys basketball Coach of the Year award.

“I would love to say I was some sort of zen master, but I just came in and instilled a belief in them,” Rideaux said. “Our goal was to make the playoffs and I thought we could accomplish it from the first day. They weren’t scared. They just didn’t know how to work to get there. When they finally got a taste of success they didn’t want it to stop.”

While the rest of district 22-4A was put on notice, only the small unincorporated communities of Hamshire and Fannett knew how special this season was considering all that occurred off the court. The residual effects of Tropical Depression Imelda left the Longhorns with a less than ideal practice schedule in the heat of a race for the final playoff spot.

The flooding forced the Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District to consolidate all of its schools to the high school. As a result, the entire Hamshire-Fannett high school student body attended school from 7 a.m. to noon. With the entire school district concentrated to the high school, it meant practice time in the gym was scarce for the basketball team and had to be shared with the other extracirricular programs.

“We didn’t have a gym to practice in everyday,” Rideaux said. “ One week we would have two athletic periods and another week would have three. Some days we would only be able to practice for 30 minutes and sometimes just an hour. Nobody but the community understood what we went through.”

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An inconsistent practice schedule challenged Rideaux unlike anything before in his coaching career.

“I am really big with scheduling and organized practice,” Rideaux said. “It got to the point where we would work only on half court defense one day for 30 minutes and only offense another day. We made the best of the situation we were dealt.”

H-F sophomore Reggie Coleman admits there were some days when the lack of a training facility affected the intensity at practice, but they were motivated to strive through the unprecedented circumstances.

“Every chance we got to practice on that court we had to push ourselves as hard as we could,” Coleman said. “We had to block out the night — just like Coach (Rideaux) said — and keep working because we had a playoff spot to get. I look back now and I don’t think too many schools could be in the position that we were in at the time.”

Amid all the adversity the Longhorns faced this season, Rideaux’s unwavering confidence in himself to keep that “crazy” postseason birth promise he made to his team at the beginning of the season never faltered.

The more games the Longhorns won throughout the season, the more his infectious confidence rubbed off on the rest of the team. For Coleman, the reality of a possible postseason berth became realistic as the Longhorns entered district play with an 18-5 record.

At the same time of the Longhorns’ ascension, Coleman’s individual play under Rideaux’s guidence, also took strides forward.

“I think I have grown a lot since (Rideaux) got here,” Coleman said. “The best advice he gave me was to play under control and if I did that then no one can stop me.”

Coleman finished his sophomore season as the Longhorns leading scorer with 15.3 points per game. The H-F wing added 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, two steals and earned a 2020 second-team Super Gold selection.

But the turning point came in the final seconds of the final game of the Evadale tournament in December against the East Chambers Buccaneers.

The Longhorns made a defensive mistake allowing the Buccaneers to take a one-point lead with only seconds remaining. Rideaux would normally call a timeout after the defensive breakdown, but instead trusted Coleman to push the ball down the court.

Coleman crossed half court, took a few more dribbles and sunk his attempt from beyond the arc as time expired.

“It felt awesome to have a coach who barely knew me to believe in me like that,” Coleman said. “I felt confident to take the shot and I made it.”

Aside from all that Rideux brings to the court, Coleman said the biggest impact the first-year head coach made this season was off the court.

By all accounts, the Longhorns’ season was a success and Rideaux is proud of what his team accomplished.

“I give my kids an ‘A+’. They put up with a lot and it was a big change for them when I took over,” Rideaux said.“I am excited to see them compete. I made the most challenging schedule I could for them next season”

But when asked to grade his performance, he believes there’s still so much he can improve on for next season.

“I give myself a ‘B-’. I still think I think I could’ve done more to win more games. I still think about that Booker T. Washington playoff game,” Rideux said. “When you start to pat yourself on the back, you start to get complacent and I don’t have time for that.”